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Letter

Nature Genetics 37, 1372–1375 (1 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/ng1686

Adaptive evolution of bacterial metabolic networks by horizontal gene transfer

Csaba P|[aacute]|l , Bal|[aacute]|zs Papp & Martin J Lercher

Numerous studies have considered the emergence of metabolic pathways, but the modes of recent evolution of metabolic networks are poorly understood. Here, we integrate comparative genomics with flux balance analysis to examine (i) the contribution of different genetic mechanisms to network growth in bacteria, (ii) the selective forces driving network evolution and (iii) the integration of new nodes into the network.